Last month saw a drop in US job openings alongside a rise in employee separations, with an uptick in layoffs noted in recent government data. Job vacancies fell to 7.44 million by the end of September, a decrease from August's figure of 7.86 million, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey.
This decline came in lower than the anticipated consensus of 8 million, derived from a survey conducted by Bloomberg. Private sector job openings also saw a reduction, with a dip to 6.63 million in September, down from 6.91 million the previous month. The healthcare and social assistance sectors experienced a decrease of 178,000 vacancies, followed closely by drops of 134,000 in trade, transportation, and utilities, and 111,000 in leisure and hospitality. Nancy Vanden Houten, the lead US economist at Oxford Economics, shared her thoughts on the September JOLTS report through remarks sent to MT Newswires: "The September JOLTS report was a mixed bag, with job openings falling and layoffs increasing.
However, the pace of hiring picked up, lending some upside risk to our forecast for October payroll growth." Upcoming financial assessments from the Bureau of Labor Statistics are expected to indicate that the US economy added around 111,000 jobs in October, signaling a slower growth rate compared to the 254,000 increase witnessed in September. The report also highlighted changes in job separations, which encompass employee quits and layoffs, rising to 5.2 million from the previous month's figures of 5.17 million.
Notably, the number of quits fell to 3.07 million in September from 3.18 million in August, while layoffs surged to 1.83 million from 1.67 million. Specific sectors faced varying impacts, with quits in professional and business services decreasing by 94,000, while layoffs in durable goods manufacturing increased by 46,000.
Vanden Houten concluded, stating, "Taken as a whole, the report doesn't change our overall view of the labor market or our forecast for the Federal Reserve to lower rates by 25 basis points next week.".